Peshawar school bus bombing | Married students

Peshawar school bus bombing worries parents
Peshawar, Dec 18: Parents
are concerned about the safety of their children after the recent
school bus bombing incident and the threatening letters being sent by
militants to some educational institutions.

A 14-year old
boy was killed and two schoolchildren were injured when the bus of a
private school was hit by an improvised explosive device on Charkhana
Road in Landi Arbab area on December 13.

The terror act raised
concern among hundreds of thousands of students and their parents in the
provincial capital. All are worried due to the lawlessness that has
plagued Peshawar and others parts of the province.

The
government-run girls high school in Landi Arbab has already been bombed
thrice. It has severely affected the enrollment as well as the academic
activities at the school. Some villagers said that leaflets had been
distributed in the village recently with warnings against education for
girls. But still brave students displayed courage and continued with
their education.

Most of the schools are closed these days due to
winter vacations and parents are relaxed a bit. But they get upset
while thinking about the situation when holidays would be over and they
would start sending children to schools in this insecure environment.
"For the parents, the lives of their children are far important than
their better future. Several schools in the city have been bombed
recently, forcing the students to abandon their studies or go for
schooling at relatively safer places," said Amina Khattak, a mother and
resident of Gulberg locality in Peshawar.

Shandana Qadir, a
resident of Swati Phatak, said: "After recent bombing of the school bus
in Landi Arbab, my spouse and I are concerned about our two kids
studying in a local private school. You cannot stop them from attending
school but you are never relaxed until they return home every
afternoon."

Certain schools in the city have been receiving
threats for the last couple of years. Some were bombed but this was for
the first time that a school bus became the target of a terrorist
strike. Last year the buses of a reputed private school on Warsak Road
had been set on fire when terrorists broke into the building and also
bombed a portion of the academic block.

Mohammad Naeem, a
crockery dealer from Bara, enrolled his three sons and two daughters in
top private schools in Peshawar hoping that they would study in a secure
environment but the increasing threats to the schools has disturbed
him.

"I am paying around Rs17,000 a month in fees and other
charges for my kids' education. I am bearing the huge expenses so that
my children could have a better future. But the threats to even private
schools and bombings of other educational institutions have taken a toll
on children's education," he complained.

He said his daughters
got frightened after their school administration received threats last
year from suspected militants. A housewife Nazia Bibi said her daughter
and two sons were extraordinarily intelligent students, but they were
reluctant to go to school due to the fear of terrorism. She said
frequent absenteeism had started affecting their studies, adding the
same was the case with several other students. "Parents have been forced
despite their meager resources to get tuitions for their children,"
said Saima Azmat, who teaches at a private school on Kohat Road. "The
majority of parents who are sending their daughters to the lone girls'
high school in our village are labourers or farmers," she said.

"They
are keen to educate their daughters, but the growing terror incidents
have proved to be a major hurdle in making their dreams a reality," she
said. "After every bomb blast, the attendance at schools goes down for
several weeks. Once the studies regain momentum, another blast takes
place," Huma Khan, a teacher at a private school said while describing
the state of affairs. She said the literacy rate in rural Peshawar,
especially in the villages adjoining tribal areas, had dropped to a
great extent due to the frequent acts of terrorism.

Refusal to readmit student
Peshawar: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has issued a contempt notice to the
administration of a private school for non-compliance with the court
order to readmit a student, who was rusticated for getting married.

The
court had allowed on December 2 the petition of a Grade-7 student,
Ghairat Khan, who challenged his rustication from the school. The PHC
had also directed the principal and board of governors of the Peshawar
Model School to explain as to why they had rusticated the student for
tying the knot. According to the student's lawyer, M Isa Khan, the
school administration, however, appeared to be hesitant in complying
with the court orders, which led to filing of a contempt application.

The
applicant stated that following the judgement he went to the school for
taking classes and showed the court order to the principal but she did
not allow him to take classes.

Taking up the application, a
two-judge bench of the PHC comprising Chief Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan and
Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel ordered the principal of the school to
explain her position in the case. The case was adjourned for January 12,
2011. In the main petition, the petitioner stated that the school
administration expelled him only because he got married and the
"unlawful" act put his educational future at stake.

Ghairat Khan
was a student of the Peshawar Model School and was promoted to Grade 7
in the current academic year. He said his father had died and presently
he was living with his aged mother, who was ill and was unable to do the
house chores. He claimed he got married as per the permission and
desire of his mother and other relatives.

The student said that
after his marriage, the principal of the Peshawar Model School
(Boys-III), Ring Road branch, expelled him from the school. The
petitioner's lawyer raised various questions in the petition, stating
that there was no law in the country that might empower the respondents
to expel a student for getting married. The news

Teachers divided over choice of acting VC
Peshawar: The authorities have failed to appoint an acting vice-chancellor of Islamia
College University (ICU) after lapse of more than three months of the
abduction of its Vice-Chancellor Ajmal Khan.

"The university has been working without a head since kidnapping of
Ajmal Khan, who is still missing, though the law, under which the
university was established, says that an acting vice-chancellor should
be appointed in the absence of vice-chancellor," said a teacher.

According to sources, differences among teachers over the list of
names sent to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor, who is chancellor of all the
public sector universities, for selection of one as acting
vice-chancellor is main hurdle in the said appointment.

"If a vice-chancellor is absent even for a week, the law says that
the chancellor should appoint a senior dean or officer to officiate as
acting vice-chancellor," the teacher added.

Ajaml Khan was kidnapped on Sept 7 this year and till today he has not been recovered.

A list of deans of seven faculties were sent to the chancellor to
appoint one among them as acting vice-chancellor but senior faculty
opposed the names of some teachers having less experience, forcing the
chancellor not to appoint anyone on the vacant post.

A teacher, on condition of anonymity said that governor had
decided to appoint Dr Naeem Khalid, dean of faculty of Numerical and
Physical Sciences, as acting vice-chancellor but senior teachers opposed
him. Since then the governor is running the affairs of the university.
Dr Naeem Khalid was not available for comment.

"He (Dr Naeem) lacks experience for even becoming a dean and
certainly doesn't qualify to become acting vice-chancellor," said
another senior teacher.

Perhaps the governor also did not want to create any controversy so
he did not appoint anyone as acting vice-chancellor, said another
teacher, alleging that the registrar was passing orders like a VC,
though unofficially.

Prof Saeed Anwar, registrar of Islamia College University, however,
rejected the allegation and said that he was a professor of Chemistry
and interested in teaching.

"It was on the request of Ajmal Khan that I joined this university and took up this job," he said.

He said that he did not know why the chancellor had not followed the
varisty act to appoint acting vice-chancellor so far. "My good relations
with the teachers are helping me to run the affairs smoothly otherwise
working without a VC is a great problem," he said.

Since the abduction of Ajmal Khan, policy matters were being sent for approval to the chancellor and pro-chancellor. Dawn